HIST 339 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Tabitha Brown, Donner Party
Document Summary
Today we will first continue discussing catharine brown from last time. The readings for today should have been disruptive in bringing in pioneering women into the narrative of westward migration. 1/4th of the cowboys out west were of african descent. Events going on in the 1850s: gold rush out west; westward expansion. War secretary edward stanton received report that sioux indians on the border of dakota and. Minnesota have been attacking white settlers; suspicion that the indians might be in cahoots with the confederates and are trying to have the union fight a war on two fronts. Supposedly, four dakota indian men had murdered five whites; the federal government had apparently been behind on payments to the native tribes. It is possible that the 4 dakota indians were hungry men who were seeking food. The narrative that the federal government was not meeting treaty obligations, then the indians (violently) react, is one that often repeated itself.
